Animal rights from the left: it’s Labour’s pet manifesto

Labour described the production of foie gras as “cruel and inhumane”REMY GABALDA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

If you eat foie gras, want your rental property to stay pet free or ever run over a cat, Labour is gunning for you.

The party will try today to upstage Michael Gove, the environment secretary, who has made a series of animal welfare announcements to woo younger voters, by asserting itself as the champion on the issue. It plans to give tenants the default right to keep pets in rental homes, ban the liver pâté and outlaw intensive rearing of game birds.

A draft policy document with 50 proposals includes plans to require drivers who hit cats to report the accident to police. Labour said that cats deserved to be treated the same as dogs and livestock already subject to this rule. It described…